Method for Event Management

1. A method for updating a plurality of medical devices of respectively different types that communicate with a network having a network interface operable by a user, comprising the steps of: in a database accessible via said interface, electronically storing a plurality of tables respectively corresponding to said different types of said medical devices; in each of said tables in said database, electronically storing a plurality of predetermined templates respectively for said different types of medical devices, each predetermined template comprising an identifier that designates the medical device to which the table corresponds, and at least one event detection criterion, unique to the type of medical device designated by the identifier that, when satisfied, denotes an occurrence of said at least one event; developing a new template comprising a new identifier and a new event detection criterion for the type of medical device designated by the type identifier of the new template; electronically storing said new template in said database in one of said plurality of tables that corresponds to the same type of medical device as said new template; via said network interface, manually defining a set of templates respectively for said plurality of medical devices, said set of templates comprising said new template and at least one of said predetermined templates so that said set of templates contains templates with respective identifiers for each of said different types of said medical devices; and updating all of said plurality of medical devices by transmitting the templates in said set of templates to the respective medical devices dependent on the respective identifiers thereof.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising, before updating said network, testing said new template in a test network that simulates said network.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising employing a Revision Control System (ROS) as said database.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising using said identifier of each template to designate a version of that template, and wherein the step of manually defining said set of templates comprises selecting templates from said tables dependent on said version represented by the respective identifier.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of said medical devices comprises a configurable agent, and wherein the step of updating all of said plurality of medical devices comprises re-configuring the respective agents of all of said plurality of medical devices using the respective templates in said set of templates.